Changes in the Income-Expenditure Pattern in Rural China

Duringthepasttwodecades,ruralresidentsliveshaveundergoneremarkablechangesbecauseoftheimplementationofthehouseholdcontractresponsibilitysysteminruralChinainthelate1970s.Theruraleconomyhasprosperedsince.HerearethestrikingchangesfI.IncomeincreasesbynearlyfourfoldIncomeincreasesrapidlybutwithfluctuations.Annualnetincomepercapitaincreasedfrom134yuaninl978to2090yuanin1997.However,thegrowthwasgroupedintofourperiodswithanotablefluctUationfTheperiodof1978-1984wasoneofrapidincreasefromanannualaverage…     

Changes in Household Size and Structure in China

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The Wellbeing of the Self’s Personality: A Structural Analysis

Leaning on the formal faceted definition of wellbeing (Levy and Guttman (1975) Social Indicators Research, 2, 361–388), a mapping sentence is provided for defining the universe of observations of the wellbeing of the self-expanding on personality aspects. The structure of the interrelationships among the variables of the expanded conceptualization of self’s personality is examined by the use of the SSA technique. The sample consists of 176 adult residents (20 years of age and over) from all parts of the city of Jerusalem, Israel. Results further verify the circular structure (radex) of personal wellbeing. The state of wellbeing-versus- wellbeing in the sense of possession of resources partition the space into two concentric belts, while the life domains of wellbeing play a polarizing role in partitioning the space into wedglike regions emanating from a common origin. Self’s personality domains-versus-self’s social environment domains serve as a rationale for the circular order. The expanded conceptualization of personal wellbeing enhance the earlier conceptualization of the 1975 study and makes possible the development of the theory of the structure of the wellbeing of the self in a systematic cumulative fashion.     

Reproductive Requirement of Chinese Farmers And Its Changes In Zhejian

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Changes in women’s postmarital employment in Japan and Taiwan

Research on female labor-force participation has not fully explained why economic development has different effects on married women's employment continuity across societies. I use life-history data from nationally representative samples of women in Japan and Taiwan to examine the divergence in women's patterns of labor-force exit in these two countries during the postwar period. The findings reveal that the effects of family demands, occupation, firm size, and employment sector on women's exit rates differed substantially between Japan and Taiwan. Taken together, these factors account for the different trends in married women's employment during this period. I argue that the cross-national differences in the predictors of women's labor-force withdrawal reflect the extent of incompatibility between work and family responsibilities for married women in these two societies.     

Measuring Changes in Family Wellbeing in New Zealand 1981–2001

Since the mid-1980s, New Zealand has experienced extensive economic, social and political reforms. The economic impact of these changes has been closely monitored and much commented upon. However, the social impacts of the reforms on different family types are less well understood. This paper outlines a project designed to monitor how the reforms impacted upon specific family types via the use of indicators of family wellbeing constructed from census data. These indicators show that for a range of family types, the reforms of the 1980s and 1990s varied in their impact, with single-parent families faring worst.

Changes in children’s time with parents: A correction

This article provides corrected estimates of the weekly time that 3- to 12-year-old children spent either directly engaged with their parents or with their parents accessible to them in 1997, replicating the figures presented in the original 2001 Demography article. The data come from the 1997 Child Development Supplement to the Panel Study of Income Dynamics. The results show a considerably greater increase in children's total time in 1997 with mothers, fathers, or either parent than was shown in the original article. Some alternative estimates, likely reasons for the larger change, and the implications are discussed.     

Changes in wealth in the United States, 1962–1983

A simulation model is developed to account for observed changes in mean household wealth both overall and by age cohort over the 1962–1983 period in the United States. There are three major findings. First, capital gains are the major factor explaining overall wealth changes and account for 77% of the simulated growth in wealth over the entire period. Second, for cohorts under age 40, inheritance and inter vivos transfers dominate observed changes in wealth. Indeed, the oldest age groups appear to have transferred sizable amounts of their wealth to younger generations inter vivos, raising the wealth of these younger groups substantially above what it would be based on saving. Third, while differences in portfolio composition favored the younger cohorts over this period, such differences do not explain a large portion of the great variation in real wealth changes by cohort over the two decade period.The authors wish to thank Kevin Camerlo, Maury Gittleman and Kim Hiskey for research and programming assistance.     

Changes in Young Children’s Family Structures and Child Care Arrangements

Family structure change can disrupt the settings of children’s daily lives. Most scholarship focuses on disruption in the home environment. Moving beyond the home, this study explores the association between changes in family structure and changes in several dimensions of early child care. With longitudinal data from the NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development (n = 1,298), first-difference models reveal that family structure transitions are associated with changes in the type and quantity of early care as well as the number of care arrangements used, especially during the latter part of infancy. Given prior evidence linking these child care dimensions to behavioral and cognitive outcomes, these results suggest a policy-relevant mechanism by which family change may create inequalities among children.     

Changes in world inequality in length of life: 1970–2000

Previous research has revealed much global convergence over the past several decades in life expectancy at birth and in infant mortality, which are closely linked. But trends in the variance of length of life, and in the variance of length of adult life in particular, are less well understood. I examine life-span inequality in a comprehensive panel of 180 countries observed in 1970 and 2000. Convergence in infant mortality has unambiguously reduced world inequality in total length of life starting from birth, but world inequality in length of adult life has remained largely unchanged. Underlying both of these observations is a growing share of total inequality attributable to between-country variation. Especially among developed countries, the absolute level of between-country inequality has risen over time. The sources of widening inequality in length of life between countries remain unclear, but signs point away from changes in income, leaving patterns of knowledge diffusion as a likely candidate.     

Changes of Major Population and Family Planning Indicators(1996-2000)

1. Implementation of Population Plans (1996-2000) China had succeeded in bringing its population under control during the Ninth Five-Year Plan (1996-2000), in terms of the annual number of newborns in 2000 and the total population of the nation, as well as the annual growth rate, according to estimates by the China Family Planning Commission (SFPC). During this period, both the birth rate and natural increase rate reduced steadily and the momentum of population growth was bro…     

Living as a Guest without Being a Guest

Wang Xiuhua is a married woman of childbearing age with a registered permanent residence in Hanchuan, but running a clothing business in the Luonan comprehensive market in     

Investing in Children: Changes in Parental Spending on Children, 1972–2007

Parental spending on children is often presumed to be one of the main ways that parents invest in children and a main reason why children from wealthier households are advantaged. Yet, although research has tracked changes in the other main form of parental investment—namely, time—there is little research on spending. We use data from the Consumer Expenditure Survey to examine how spending changed from the early 1970s to the late 2000s, focusing particularly on inequality in parental investment in children. Parental spending increased, as did inequality of investment. We also investigate shifts in the composition of spending and linkages to children’s characteristics. Investment in male and female children changed substantially: households with only female children spent significantly less than parents in households with only male children in the early 1970s; but by the 1990s, spending had equalized; and by the late 2000s, girls appeared to enjoy an advantage. Finally, the shape of parental investment over the course of children’s lives changed. Prior to the 1990s, parents spent most on children in their teen years. After the 1990s, however, spending was greatest when children were under the age of 6 and in their mid-20s.     

Changes in the Living Arrangements of Elderly People in Greece: 1974–1999

During the period 1974–1999 two contrasting trends were observed with respect to the living arrangements of older people in Greece. On the one hand the proportion of older people living with their unmarried children had been slightly rising while on the other hand the proportion of older people living with their married children declined substantially. As a result of the declining trend in the incidence of co-residence with married children the percentage of older people living with their children or other members of their extended family fell by 25% points (from a 58% in 1974 to about 33% in 1999). Our analysis suggests that the main driving force behind the decrease in co-residence between older people and their married children was the rise in the incomes of older people (which resulted from some important exogenous policy changes which increased substantially pension incomes). On the other hand, the main driving force behind the slight increase in the co-residence with unmarried children was the increase in the percentage of unmarried younger people (which is associated with the postponement in the age of marriage) and the high and in some cases increasing needs of children’s generation.     

“Consumer Confidence” Indexes as social indicators

Consumer Confidence Indexes can be sensibly used in economic and social research conducted in theoretical and methodological framework of social indicators research. They are good predictors of other attitudes, such as voting preferences. Voting preferences are determined much more strongly by expectations of changes in economic conditions than by evaluations of present situation. On the other hand, Consumer Sentiment Indexes — irrespective whether they concern future or present times — are correlated more strongly with leading than with coincident indexes of economic cycles. That proves very important role of predictions, expectations and hopes in attitude formation.     

The ‘digital glimpse’ as imagining home

This paper proposes the concept of the ‘digital glimpse’, which develops the existing framing of imaginative travel. Here it articulates the experiences of mobile workers digitally connecting into family life and everyday rituals when physically absent with work. The recent embedding of digital communication technologies into personal relationships and family life is reconfiguring how absence is experienced and practiced by workers on the move, and through this, new digital paradigms for life on-the-move are emerging. This paper explores how such social relationships are maintained at-a-distance through digital technology – using evidence from qualitative interviews with mobile workers and their families. Digital technology now enables expressive forms of ‘virtual travel’, including video calling, picture sharing, and instant messaging. This has implications for the ways in which families can manage the social and relational pressures of being apart. Experiences of imaginative travel created through novel media can enrich the experience and give a greater sense of connection for both those who are at home and those who are away. While technology is limited in its ability to replicate a sense of co-presence, ‘digital glimpses’ are an emergent set of sociotechnical practices that can reduce the negative impact of absence on family relationships.     

Choosing children over career? Changes in the postpartum labor force behavior of professional women

In recent years, the popular press in the U.S. hasrepeatedly profiled professionalwomen who have elected to leave the labor force inorder to devote their full-timeenergies to child rearing. The conclusion of thesearticles is often that mothers havetired of trying to be superwomen and have decidedthat high achievement in thelabor force is not compatible with a successful homelife. The purpose of this paperis to explore whether this impression is, in fact,based in truth. Using a sample ofprofessional women drawn from the PSID during theyears 1968–1992, we estimatethe probability of withdrawing from the labor forceat one, two and five year intervalsafter the birth of a child. We use several differentmeasures of labor force withdrawaland find that women who gave birth in recent years aremore likely to report zero hoursof work two years after the birth of a child when comparedto women who gave birthearlier in the sample period. Thus, we find some supportfor the conjecture that moreprofessional women are opting to stay home and raisechildren in lieu of aggressivelypursuing their careers. We do not find any differencesby cohort, indicating that thisphenomenon cuts across women of all childbearingages. However, our results are notrobust across different measures of labor forcewithdrawal, nor are they consistent acrosspostpartum time intervals.     

Changes in assortative mating: The impact of age and education, 1970–1890

Data from the U.S. Census and Current Population Survey are used to examine trends in the propensity to marry or to cohabit by the age and educational attainment of potential partners. Marriage rates declined sharply across all age and educational combinations between 1970 and 1980 and declined more sharply for less-educated persons between 1980 and 1990. The rise in cohabitation compensated somewhat for the decline in marriage rates, but the compensation was unequally spread among age and educational combinations. Highly educated men were more likely, and highly educated women were no more or less likely, to marry than to cohabit with less-educated partners in 1970 and 1980. By 1990, however, educational assortative-mating patterns between these two types of unions were similar. In 1990, marriages and cohabitations involving women who were better educated than their partners were more common than those involving women who were less educated than their partners. In addition, men and women in their early 20s tend to have partners better educated than themselves, but persons in their 30s tend to cross the less-than-high-school/ more-than-high-school educational barrier when partners differ in educational attainment.     

Does Perceived Social Support Buffer the Negative Effects of Type C Personality on Quality of Life of Breast Cancer Patients?

The present study investigated possible Type C personality–quality of life (QOL) relationship, and the moderating role of perceived social support in this relation among 101 postoperative breast cancer patients. Participants were from different cities in Turkey but receiving treatment in the capital, Ankara. Obtained data were analyzed by moderated regression analysis. According to the results, Type C personality was not related to the QOL of participants, however, higher perceived social support was associated with better QOL in patients. Also, perceived social support moderated Type C personality–QOL relation. Accordingly, patients high on Type C personality and perceived social support had the highest QOL. In contrast, patients high on Type C personality and low on perceived social support had the lowest QOL. Findings, as well as the strengths and limitations of the study, were discussed in the light of the relevant literature. As a possible clinical implication, enhancement of social support networks of the patients were suggested.